


Treacherous Balance

by DraconisWinters



Series: Within The Shadows [60]
Category: LinkedUniverse - Fandom, The Darks-Verse (LinkedUniverse), The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:27:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22960213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DraconisWinters/pseuds/DraconisWinters
Summary: "You alright Shadow?" Four asked glancing over to the other who was starring off into the distance."Yeah just been feeling off lately is all...." He muttered.Four looked on worried, Shadow had been quiet lately. It just wasn't right. Especially considering he was always talking now. Originally he had no room to complain but now it just seemed wrong."You ever...you ever think of back then?" Shadow asked finally, breaking the silence between them.
Series: Within The Shadows [60]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1330370
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	Treacherous Balance

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Animal Death

"You alright Shadow?" Four asked glancing over to the other who was starring off into the distance.  
"Yeah just been feeling off lately is all...." He muttered.  
Four looked on worried, Shadow had been quiet lately. It just wasn't right. Especially considering he was always talking now. Originally he had no room to complain but now it just seemed wrong.  
"You ever...you ever think of back then?" Shadow asked finally, breaking the silence between them.  
"Yeah..." Four responded cautiously wondering exactly which part he was referring too.  
"I just...you wouldn't betray me again right?"  
"Shadow, I trust you with my life now-clearly," He insisted.  
Shadow sighed, "I hate that name you know....it's so....insulting. Like that's what an erembour is, it's a shadow, a lesser cimmerian-weak-pathetic. I'm not weak. Not anymore."  
"I know you're not," Four said a little offended, "I have seen you hold your own time and time again. Considering where you were and where you are now, you're much stronger than the other ebon. You choose not to lose yourself to your anger-,"  
"But that's the thing Vio, did I choose?"  
Four’s eyes widened all four colors being present at once, “What-what do you mean?”  
“You dusted me-did you not? I was turning and you dusted me-then I shattered the dark mirror-I blocked off some of my own memories-well…they’ve started coming back.”  
“Oh-well that’s good isn’t it?” Four asked cautiously.  
“Yes. Very good.” Shadow replied staring off into the fire.  
…  
Legend glanced over to Ravio worried-the man hadn’t been acting right since that day he had freaked out in the forest. He was tense, always looking over his shoulder. “Ravio what’s going on?” the man finally asked, worried for his friend.  
“Nothing, everything is fine-”  
“Don’t lie to me,” Legend snapped, “I can’t help if you don’t tell me what’s going on.”  
“You can’t help with this.”  
Legend huffed and faced away from him sighing, worry increasing tenfold.  
“You two okay?” Twilight asked glancing over to them.  
Legend shook his head silently while Ravio didn’t respond. Twilight sighed and nodded understanding. They continued on silently until the group found and clearing and came to a halt.  
“What’s wrong?” Ravio asked looking up.  
No one responded, eyes all starring ahead, horror clearly in them.  
He sighed and made his way to the front of the group only to freeze when he saw what made them stop. There was a tree stump in the middle of the clearing.  
Freshly cut.  
However, that wasn’t what caused the horror reflectant in the eyes of everyone. Resting on top of the tree stump was a rabbit, laying there dead with a knife through its body pinning it there.  
Freshly caught.  
The surrounding trees were all marked up with the word ‘Liar’ carved crudely into them everywhere that could be seen. Ravio paled. It was everywhere-covering everything-he backed up shaking his head, legs wobbling before giving out.  
He was quickly caught by Warriors who looked extremely concerned-as did everyone else-  
But he merely trembled and shook his head burying his face in his hands.  
He wanted Curse.  
He wanted his best friend.  
But he was alone-  
Alone again-  
A coward-  
Just like they all said.  
…  
No one questioned Ravio about it as the man clearly wouldn’t speak. They had dragged him far away from the area-hiking until the mid-evening as the sun was disappearing before settling down. The Lorulian man had yet to say anything merely trembling and shaking his head frantically when asked anything.  
As everyone began to settle in, Invicta’s eyes once again fell upon Noble and Wild. They narrowed in suspicion as Wild grabbed the others hand and dragged him away from everyone else, rambling about who knows what.  
“What’s wrong boss?” Acidic asked casually approaching him from behind and leaning against a tree, arms crossed carelessly in front of him. Though Invicta knew how much he was struggling right now. The dog he had returned with-  
Aspen, his mind supplied.  
Yes, Aspen was over with the Lorulian hero-  
Ravio  
Whatever!  
He rolled his eyes turning back to Acidic to answer, “How close were those two before their...adventures around the wilderness?”  
“Uhh-last year Noble couldn’t even be in the same room as Wild-well any light really, Hylian or otherwise,” Acidic shrugged, “Why?”  
“It is a curious thing-the bond they now seem to have…but perhaps I may be merely imagining things.”  
Acidic sighed, “I’m sure it’s just that they are getting to know each other-adventures can bond anyone. The two of them were isolated for a long time.”  
“Bonding or not-we cannot risk ‘Balance’ happening again.” Invicta hissed, his voice venomous and full of hatred.  
Acidic’ eyes darkened as well, “You are right…”  
“It was a brutal genocide-,” Invicta shook his head.  
“I know-I was there. Unlike some of us-.”  
“You think I didn’t feel it?” Invicta hissed rounding on him, “You think I didn’t care?”  
Calm down.  
Acidic took a step back eyes widening in surprise.  
“Everything alright over there?” Time asked glancing over.  
“Fine. It’s fine.” Invicta huffed, anger dying down.  
“You sure?” Legend questioned, “Is it some kind of cimmerian thing-?”  
“Yes-and no. But you wouldn’t understand,” Acidic said looking away.  
“Well we definitely won’t if you don’t tell us,” Wind commented.  
Invicta looked over all of them before sighing, “Alright then. Gather round heroes.”  
They all glanced to one another, surprised he had agreed but sat down, nervous but also curious.Virtue stood in the back watching over all on them, knowing the story that was about to be shared-but curious as to how Invicta would tell it. Savage saw Noble and Wild return out of the corner of his eye and sighed, they both looked a little tired-  
“So, I am sure you nine know you are not the only hylian heroes-just as Ravio is not the only lorulian hero,” Invicta began. Ravio looked away at that comment curling more in on himself. Despite their surprise, no one pushed him or even questioned the subject.  
“Hyrule has had many heroes-and with every hero proceeding the first-they have had a cimmerian counterpart-whether they fought them or not.” He said pointedly looking at Wild and Noble.  
“In the dark world, due to the time in between the awakening of the cimmerians, there were multiple generations or era’s, waves of cimmerians ‘waking up’-,”  
“Waking up?” Sky questioned curiously.  
Invicta nodded, “Yes, unlike you lights, we do not reproduce-there will never be more of us, there is a set number and as far as we know, they are now all awake. A cimmerian-when it is there time simply wakes up and their power is unleashed from inside them-it creates quite the light show in some cases.”  
“Interesting,” Hyrule commented.  
Invicta ignored him continuing, “The first era was Stygian, Eternal, and myself. We are the oldest. In the second generation-,” Invicta paused looking away for a second, “many cimmerians woke up-many- Savage and Curse being two of them. The third also had quite a few- Conqueror, Acidic, and...Eris.” He practically spat out the final name in disgust. “The third era was all of Eternal’s rule, while the fourth was mine-and in the fourth- unbeknownst to anyone at the time, Eris and his light-the hero of Balance met. And despite being complete parallels-they managed to get along rather well. And then-they decided to do something that not even us Titan’s were prepared for,” Invicta looked away regret clearly lacing his voice.  
“The two of them decided it was up to them to ‘restore Balance’ to the worlds-and became the same person-fused into a killing machine.”  
The heroes starred up at him in disbelief and horror. Invicta noticed Wild shift uncomfortably and grab Noble’s hand. His eyes narrowed at that and he continued, “From there on it was genocide, cimmerians being shattered left and right. Through Eris he got into the mansion and-well. You see how many are now left.”  
“But surely-there had to be a reason-,” Warriors insisted.  
“I know you’re familar with war-but we were not given a chance to escape-a warning-nothing-we just woke up to the feeling of Dusk being shattered-,” Acidic’s breath hitched and he bit his lip looking away.  
Savage curled in on himself hugging his legs tightly to his chest, remembering how terrified he had been-how Eternal had left to actually try and fight him-how he lost-  
Acidic cleared his throat and continued, “Those of us who were in the deeper parts of the manor were lucky-we at least had a small chance-but we couldn’t shadow travel-he would have tracked us-we were forced to flee from our home-because of that traitor-”  
A deafening silence fell over the crowd and Invicta locked eyes with Wild, “I trust none of you will repeat this. But even so-it is forbidden for a cimmerian to fuse with their light.  
Before Wild could comment, Time beat him, “Of course, we understand.”  
Noble’s grip on Wild’s hand tightened.


End file.
